The Dragon’s Tales links to a paper tracing the origin of the Dravidian language family to a point in time 4500 years ago.

JSTOR Daily notes Phyllis Wheatley, a freed slave who became the first African-American author in the 18th century but who died in poverty.

Language Hat notes the exceptional importance of the Persian language in early modern South Asia.

Language Log looks at the forms used by Chinese to express the concepts of NIMBY and NIMBYism.

Language Hat notes the exceptional importance of the Persian language in early modern South Asia.

The NYR Daily notes that, if the United States junks the nuclear deal with Iran, nothing external to Iran could realistically prevent the country’s nuclearization.

The Planetary Society Blog looks at the latest findings from the Jupiter system, from that planet’s planet-sized moons.

Roads and Kingdoms notes that many Rohingya, driven from their homeland, have been forced to work as mules in the illegal drug trade.

Starts With A Bang considers how early, based on elemental abundances, life could have arisen after the Big Bang. A date only 1 to 1.5 billion years after the formation of the universe is surprisingly early.

Strange Maps’ Frank Jacobs notes how the centre of population of different tree populations in the United States has been shifting west as the climate has changed.

The Crux considers, in the context of recent (perhaps surprising) context, how scientists will one day record dreams.

Hornet Stories shares the report on a poll of younger gay people about the idea of monogamous relations versus open ones, suggesting there are signs a strong preference for monogamy isn’t well thought out.

Imageo notes that global warming, by leading to the breakup of icecaps, will worsen the sea ice hazard to maritime shipping.

JSTOR Daily notes how social workers are called to support serious social reform.

Language Hat notes a monument to the Cyrillic alphabet erected in Antarctica by Bulgarians.

In the era of Trump, Lingua Franca takes a look at the origin of the phrase “useful idiots”.

Marginal Revolution notes a recent article observing the decline of German cuisine in the United States. Who, or what, will save it?

At the Planetary Society Blog, Emily Lakdawalla talks about the latest exciting discoveries from Titan, including the odd distribution of nitrogen in its atmosphere and surface.

Towleroad notes how the discomfort of Ben Carson with transgender people leads him to consider the needs of homeless transgender people as secondary to this discomfort.

Window on Eurasia suggests that Cossacks in Russia are close to gaining recognition as a separate people.

Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell suggests–jokes?–that intellectual history from 1900 can be explained substantially in terms of the uncritical adoption of a nomad science, starting from race science and continuing to today with Harry Potter.

Arnold Zwicky shares a post reporting on a PhD student’s thesis, studying features of Chicano English.

Centauri Dreams notes the impending retirement of the pioneering Kepler telescope, and what’s being done in the time before this retirement.

D-Brief notes how nanowires made of gold and titanium were used to restore the sight of blind mice.

Russell Darnley takes a look at the indigenous people of Riau province, the Siak, who have been marginalized by (among other things) the Indonesian policy of transmigration.

Dead Things reports on more evidence of Denisovan ancestry in East Asian populations, with the suggestion that the trace of Denisovan ancestry in East Asia came from a different Denisovan population than the stronger traces in Melanesia.

Hornet Stories paints a compelling portrait of the West Texas oasis-like community of Marfa.

JSTOR Daily notes how indigenous mythology about illness was used to solve a hantavirus outbreak in New Mexico in the 1990s.

Language Log praises the technical style of a Google Translate translation of a text from German to English.

Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that, under the Shah, Iran was interested in building nuclear plants. Iranian nuclear aspirations go back a long way.

The LRB Blog looks at the unsettling elements of the literary, and other, popularity of Jordan Peterson.

Marginal Revolution notes the continuing existence of a glass ceiling even in relatively egalitarian Iceland.

The NYR Daily looks at the unsettling elements behind the rise of Xi Jinping to unchecked power. Transitions from an oligarchy to one-man rule are never good for a country, never mind one as big as China.

Drew Rowsome writes about Love, Cecil, a new film biography of photographer Cecil Beaton.

Peter Rukavina celebrates the 25th anniversary of his move to Prince Edward Island. That province, my native one, is much the better for his having moved there. Congratulations!

Window on Eurasia looks at a strange story of Russian speculation about Kazakh pan-Turkic irredentism for Orenburg that can be traced back to one of its own posts.

At Worthwhile Canadian Initiative, Frances Woolley takes the time to determine that Canadian university professors tend to be more left-wing than the general Canadian population, and to ask why this is the case.

This older JSTOR Daily link suggests that, used properly, Facebook can actually be good for its users, helping them maintain vital social connections.

Alexandra Samuel’s suggestion, at JSTOR Daily, that Facebook revived the classical epistolary friendship has some sense to it. I would be inclined to place an emphasis on E-mail over more modern social messaging systems.

Drew Rowsome wrote a couple of months ago about how Facebook can make it difficult to post certain kinds of content without risking getting his ability to share this content limited.

Farah Mohammed wrote at JSTOR Daily about the rise and fall of the blog, now in 2017 scarcely as important as it was a decade ago. Social media just does not support the sorts of long extended posts I like, it seems.

Josephine Livingstone at The New Republicbids farewell to The Awl, an interesting online magazine that now looks as if it represented an earlier, failed model of writing. (What is the working one? Ha.)

Centauri Dreams notes how the presence of methane in the subsurface oceans of Enceladus helps create a plausible dynamic for life there.

Crooked Timber notes another risk facing the UK in the era of Brexit, that of the United Kingdom’s already questionable data protection. How likely is it the EU will authorize data sharing with a business in an insecure third party?

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that the measured rate of the expansion of the universe depends on the method used to track this rate, and that this is a problem.

On Sunday, Caitlin Kelly celebrated receiving her annual cheque from Canada’s Public Lending Program, which gives authors royalties based on how often their book has been borrowed in our public libraries.

In The Buzz, the Toronto Public Library identified five books in its collection particularly prone to be challenged by would-be censors.

D-Brief suggests that, if bacteria managed to survive and adapt in the Atacama desert as it became hostile to life, like life might have done the same on Mars.

Far Outliers notes the crushing defeat, and extensive looting of, the MOghul empire by the Persia of Nader Shah.

Hornet Stories looks at the medal hauls of out Olympic athletes this year in Pyeongchang.

Imageo notes satellite imagery indicating that fisheries occupy four times the footprint of agriculture. Aquaculture is starting to look like a necessary idea, I think.

At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox praisesPorch Fires, a new biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser, for its insights on Wilder and on the moment of the settlement of the American West.

JSTOR Daily notes how, in the 19th century after the development of anesthesia, the ability to relieve people of pain was a political controversy. Shouldn’t it be felt, wasn’t it natural?

Language Hat links to an article taking a look behind the scenes at the Oxford English Dictionary. How does it work? What are its challenges?

At Lingua Franca, Roger Shuy distinguishes between different kinds of speech events and explains why they are so important in the context of bribery trials.

The LRB Blog shares some advice on ethics in statecraft from the 2nd century CE Chinese writer Liu An.

J. Hoberman at the NYR Daily reviews an exhibit of the work of Bauhaus artist Jozef Albers at the Guggenheim.

Roads and Kingdoms shares an anecdote of travellers drinking homemade wine in Montenegro.